Ideas for Multiple Spatchcock Chickens

robnybbq

My daughters birthday is Saturday and we are having a bunch of family over (9-11 Adults - 5-8 kids).  My daughter wants her favorite meal off the egg - Spatchcock chicken.  We like making the 4 lbers as they come out great.  But with this many people and only a LBGE I do not know how I am going to do this.  I have fit 2 on there and it was tight,

Any ideas?  I do not think cooking a set for an hour  or more than pulling off to cook another set will work as the first two will be cold by the time the second two are done.

I guess roasting some of the min the house oven would work.

Little Steven

Cut them in half.

shadowcaster

+1 on cutting them in half

robnybbq

what do you mean cut them in half?  besides cutting the backbone out, cut along the breast bone?  or cut the breast bone in half?  Do they come out the same as the whole spatchcocked bird. 

I tried just cooking the breasts and they do not come out good at all.  And nothing like spatchcocked.

Little Steven

Cut the keelbone out or cut one side of it. It's easier to fill up the grid. It's pretty much a spatchcock

corey24

Could do them standing like beer can style and fit more, no.....its not the same as spatchcock but gives you option of fitting more birds.

henapple

I would go vertical. I have a double stand that works perfect. With that many people maybe do a small turbo butt before and Ftc while the chicken is cooking.

SoCal_Griller

Can you go with multiple grids?  If so then two birds a grid should get you close.  You may have to rotate the grids for even cooking.

robnybbq

May abort this and go with something else this weekend - Supposed to be a high of 20 on Saturday and I hate the cold.  Just dont know how to brake that news to my daughter.

I have multiple grids but I wanted to cook them raised direct as I know they come out good that way.

Mayberry

I bought a few Sittin' Chickens for this very reason. I can fit 4-5 birds on my large, upright on one grid. Cut in half, you can probably fit 3 whole birds without overlapping them and making the skin soft. I know people swear by spatchcock, but I seen no difference. I actually tend to get a juicier breast by going vertical.

fishlessman

another option would be to cook spatchcocked breast only, just as juicy as when cooked whole and split them in half when serving. or beer can chickens, there was a post on here where chefwil did about ten 3.5 pounders beercan style

Canugghead

how about hybrid two levles ... halved spatchcock on the lower level + beer cans above?

Griffin

Cut 'em in half or have the butcher do it for you. Most will do that. Comes out just the same as spatch.

 

SmokeyPitt

Here are some instructions for half-cocked chicken if you want to go that route:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/halfc.htm

stantrb

Double grids with a rotate (and possibly flip) half way through.  Fill the extra space with something like legs, thigh quarters, or wings for the kids. 

robnybbq

Thanks for the tips.  Not going to happen this weekend now.  Too cold to bother with the Egg and having people over with limited time to cook.

Choices are now either something in the crock pot or takeout.

I really need to move south.

stantrb

Roast your chickens inside your home oven whole, a la Marcella Hazan's lemon chicken recipe.  Not as good as the egg, but still absolutely delicious.  Your house will smell great.

Little Steven

This just struck me. Google pollo al mattone (chicken under a brick) Originally a Venetian method done in a CI pan. Set your oven to 200* and cook one at a time.When one is finished put it in the oven on a baking sheet. It's basically a spatch with weight on top.

robnybbq

I only have an hour or so to cook this weekend but will keep in mind for the future.